


i bet (on losing dogs)

by far2late



Series: i bet on losing dogs [5]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Adopted Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Humor, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Antarctic Empire, Bird Hybrid Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Bird Hybrid TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Crying, Domestic Fluff, Family Bonding, Family Dynamics, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Family Issues, Fluff and Angst, Good Older Sibling Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Happy Toby Smith | Tubbo, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Lonely Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Older Sibling Wilbur Soot, Parent Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Phil Watson Adopts Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Platonic Soulmates Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Prince Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Protective Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Protective Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Protective Toby Smith | Tubbo, Protective TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Protective Wilbur Soot, Ram Hybrid Toby Smith | Tubbo, Ranboo Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo-centric (Video Blogging RPF), SMP Earth - Freeform, Sad, Sad Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Self-Doubt, Shapeshifter Wilbur Soot, Soft TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, de-aged Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), not in the dream smp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:13:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29670540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/far2late/pseuds/far2late
Summary: "He supposed the repercussions of all his sneaking and bad moods and hiding away and being strange was being kicked out by a castle guard who had decided that he wasn’t fit to stay anymore. Either that or Mr. Philza had been too scared to tell him in person. Ranboo was just thankful that the guard had let him keep Ranmoo before he left, wiping his eyes on the plush as he held back the urge to bawl as he was escorted from the property. Ranboo didn’t want to leave, didn’t want to go and live in a world without Mr. Techno and Mr. Philza and Mr. Bur and their cool tricks and stories and magic, but he found himself with no other choice.Ranboo should have known that everything that had been happening was far too good to be true. He wouldn’t find himself a family, a home, anything after leaving Billiam behind. He would have been better off buried in the backyard with the worms because at least he would have had something to keep him company in his death. Ranboo didn’t want to freeze to death and die in the snow because he had been kicked out by people he was starting to trust."ora series of bad days lead to ranboo getting kicked out
Relationships: Ranboo & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo & Toby Smith | Tubbo (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo & Wilbur Soot
Series: i bet on losing dogs [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2171235
Comments: 70
Kudos: 844





	i bet (on losing dogs)

**Author's Note:**

> twt is far2early :] go follow for updates and lore stuffs

The thing about Ranboo’s stay in the castle that had slowly become his home was that he never expected it to last too long, in the end. 

Despite how he had come out of his shell, made strides when it came to getting better and learning how to talk to others and trust, a month and a half was barely any time. It was a speck of dust in the universe and Ranboo felt as though there was endless nothing in store for him. It was something fatalistic, too mature for him, but something he had learned through Billiam. The man taught him that nothing good in his life would last and that he should be thankful he had something to eat that day when he had been punished. 

  
Ranboo had spent years under Billiam’s watch. To think that he would change drastically when he had been staying with Mr. Techno and Mr. Philza was a gross over-exaggeration of the ability for children to bounce back after trauma. It was a common thing. Expecting people like him to become normal in a short amount of time. He knew that Mr. Techno had expected that, remembering how he had snuck up on the man in the library and heard him plotting to himself. Ranboo had been upset to hear what he had to say, though there was something deeper under that first layer he didn’t want to think about all too hard. 

If Mr. Techno thought that he had been too slow in healing, or being normal like them, then maybe Mr. Philza had thought the same. The fact that Mr. Philza might have hated Ranboo for being abnormal or quiet or too loud or not like Mr. Techno was a fear that haunted Ranboo for ages, leaving him to lie awake in the night where he would pretend he got to sleep. He didn’t think he was very good at it, but for a seven-year-old, it was sneaky enough. 

He supposed the repercussions of all his sneaking and bad moods and hiding away and being strange was being kicked out by a castle guard who had decided that he wasn’t fit to stay anymore. Either that or Mr. Philza had been too scared to tell him in person. Ranboo was just thankful that the guard had let him keep Ranmoo before he left, wiping his eyes on the plush as he held back the urge to bawl as he was escorted from the property. Ranboo didn’t want to leave, didn’t want to go and live in a world without Mr. Techno and Mr. Philza and Mr. Bur and their cool tricks and stories and magic, but he found himself with no other choice. 

  
Ranboo should have known that everything that had been happening was far too good to be true. He wouldn’t find himself a family, a home, anything after leaving Billiam behind. He would have been better off buried in the backyard with the worms because at least he would have had something to keep him company in his death. Ranboo didn’t want to freeze to death and die in the snow because he had been kicked out by people he was starting to trust. 

  
The child sniffled as he trudged down the streets, his arms tight around the plush that he refused to loosen his grip on. The snow was started to pile up on the toes of the boots he had put on before he had left the castle. The cape he had on was barely warm enough to keep him going, the cold-blooded hybrid finding himself shivering incredibly quickly. Ranboo didn’t want to freeze, but he kept sneezing and his head was starting to hurt right behind his eyebrows and he could have sworn he heard Ranmoo make a complaint. 

Ranboo had found himself in a town that wasn’t too far from the castle, wandering off in a direction after he had been sent off for what felt like hours before he had stumbled across it. Despite the title of town, it was much bigger than it seemed. Maybe it was because everyone was much bigger than Ranboo in general, but the child found it hard to focus on that when he was trying not to bite his tongue off through chattering teeth. 

The child sniffled, burying his face in the cow plush that he held as tears began to run down his face, stinging the cold skin of his face as he did so. The small black patches that they ran over hurt him more than they hurt anything else of his, so he wiped his face fervently in an attempt to cut the problem at its source. 

  
Ranboo was reluctant to stop walking, though, finding himself stumbling more and more as his feet grew numb and his nose went dry and cold and his pale skin turned rosy red over his cheeks. Ranboo sneezed, again and again, until he had sneezed so hard that his vision had blacked out for a moment and he found himself wishing he could lie down and take a nap in Mr. Techno’s cape as he had done back in the castle. 

The seven-year-old teared up again at the mention of the castle, letting out a quiet sob into Ranmoo as his shaking fingers clutched the fabric of the teddy. It had been dark enough outside that the people of the town had wandered inside, leaving Ranboo as the solo traveller on the road. He had something in the back of his head screaming that he was going to be killed by a mob if he wasn’t careful, but the delusional thought that Mr. Techno would save him now was one that he was sure would serve to haunt him the way it was not. 

  
Delusional might have been a strong word. Child-like hope would be a better representation of the way that Ranboo still believed in happy endings and stories where the hero was victorious. A place where they would find themselves learning to be happy and heal whereas he would just be trapped as an indigent little boy who couldn’t listen to people. Billiam had hated him for it, and Ranboo found himself wondering if Mr. Techno, Mr. Philza, and Mr. Bur hated him the way that Billiam hated him, too. 

Maybe they would start a club of people that didn’t like Ranboo. There were enough people to make a duo, let along a group, and if he was unlucky enough, he would be found by the ram-horned bogeyman that would have led his search party with the equivalent of magic vultures. Ranboo had never been a fan of vultures. They were scary birds and picked at the ground for the remains of people and pretended that they were innocent as they did so. Ranboo didn’t want to be eaten. 

  
He tripped over his numb feet as he made his way past what would have been the only other person who had been using the sidewalk. Ranboo felt bad the moment he tripped before he hit anyone, and his eyes widened as he realized that he had bumped into the only other person. Ranboo looked up, scrambling back in an attempt to save the situation. 

As he looked up, he was greeted with a blur of blond and blue eyes before he slipped back into the ice, hitting his back against the ground harshly. Ranboo cried out as he did, tears slipping out his eyes as he made contact with the pavement that had been iced over and the pain it sent up his back. He couldn’t help but let the rest of his tears out, curling around Ranmoo instead of trying to get up and hiding his damp and cold face in the plush. 

Ranboo cried for feelings he couldn’t process, he cried for the loss of Mr. Philza’s wings and the protection they gave him. He cried for Mr. Techno’s cape and the warmth it provided when he would go on walks in the foyer and he cried for the journal that Mr. Bur had given him that he had been drawing in that he couldn’t show the man anymore. He had left it in his room and the guard wouldn’t let him go back or say goodbye and he didn’t know how to process abandonment or how it felt to be left behind again. 

He didn’t want to leave, he didn’t want to be alone. Ranboo thought that what he had now was new and permanent and wouldn’t waver. He thought that Ranmoo and he would find themselves a home in the castle and the homely feel it gave despite how much space there was. It was too good to be true, he should’ve known, Ranboo should have believed Billiam and never let his guard down. 

Ranboo didn’t notice the hands that pulled him upright carefully as he bawled until one of them tugged on Ranmoo and suddenly, they were white-hot against his skin. The child flinched back, tucking his chin on the cow plush as he scrambled back, wincing as his back hit the side of a stray mailbox that had been filled with newspaper. He looked up to see the same blond hair and blue eyes before he had fallen, though they looked less like Mr. Philza’s and more like those of someone who had been a close relative. 

He took quiet, heaving breaths as he buried the bottom half of his face in the plush, the stranger holding a hint of worry in his eyes that Ranboo recognized after seeing Mr. Techno, Mr. Bur, and Mr. Philza show the same over the time he had spent growing closer to them. He flinched back as the teen carefully reached a hand out to him, shaking his head ever-so-slightly. 

Ranboo could feel something sticky against the back of his head and matting his hair together, but he didn’t care for it nor the throbbing feeling it brought along with it. He simply kept his wide eyes on the stranger who sighed quietly, mumbling under his breath before he moved to sit down cross-legged, laying down his cape under him before he did. 

“You gotta calm down a bit, big man, I’m not all equipped to handle shit- I mean, um. Stuff. Like this. Yeah? I’ll sit over here, you just… calm down. Take a breather. I’ll sit here with you. But not like, you know, I- Yeah,” The teen stumbled over his words in a way that Ranboo found familiar. It was almost comforting for the child, finding it easier to look the teen in the eyes, or just look at him, in general, to know he stuttered the same way Ranboo did when he was nervous. After a few minutes of Ranboo catching his breath, he moved the plush away from his face, hugging it to his chest instead. 

The teen looked at him as he sniffed quietly. The blond moved to sit with his elbow propping up his head on his knees as he cradled his chin in his palm. It was a relaxed pose and one that Ranboo found himself growing more comfortable around as well. It was another minute before the blond spoke up, voice gravelly as he tried to speak softly like he wasn’t used to it. 

“Is it cool if I tell you my name, big man?” He asked, grinning a bit at the end of his sentence. Ranboo found himself nodding in reply, finding nothing to distrust in the stranger’s clear blue eyes and the energy he gave off just by sitting near him. 

“Cool! I’m Tommy. Tommy Innit, Big T, Biggest Man, Scam Artist, Slayer of Women, Tamer of Beasts, Stronger than Technoblade, you know me.” Ranboo lit up a bit at the mention of Mr. Techno before he remembered the day he had had and how the name would most likely never inspire that same hope in him again. Tommy frowned along with him as Ranboo frowned, letting his hands drop from their hovering positions where they had been acting out his words. 

“Hey, hey, hey, don’t go frowning on me right after I get you cheery again! C’mon, what’s wrong? You lost or something?” Tommy asked bluntly, frowning as he looked over Ranboo. He flinched back a bit at the sweep of his eyes automatically, something that he didn’t mean to do but just happened anyway. Ranboo tightened his grip on Ranmoo, shaking his head at the question. Tommy sighed, letting his hands flop in his lap. 

“Won’t you at least tell me your  _ name _ ?” He asked, Ranboo hesitant at the question. After about a moment, he figured he had nothing to lose. 

“Ranboo,” He answered, mumbling a bit as his chin was propped up on Ranmoo’s head. Tommy’s eyebrows furrowed at the answer, tipping his head to the side as he made a confused face that looked at least a little exaggerated. 

“Ran- _ bow _ ?” Tommy asked, “Like rainbow?” Ranboo sat up a bit straighter at the comparison, head tipping to the side slightly. 

“What’sa rainbow?” He asked, genuinely curious as he had never heard of the concept before. Tommy gaped for a moment before he shuffled closer, taken aback by the child’s words. 

“You don’t know what a rainbow is?” Tommy asked, voice louder and echoing throughout the streets. Despite the volume, Ranboo didn’t find himself minding, shuffling a bit closer in return as he awaited his answer after he nodded in agreement with what Tommy said. The teen sighed a bit, shaking his head and mumbling something under his breath before he clapped his hands together to grab his attention. 

“It’s like a fuckin’, uh… You know how it rains, yeah?” Ranboo nodded, watching Tommy’s hands act out the story as he spoke, almost like he was telling an extra narrative with his gestures. “It’s like when the rain clears and stuff. It shows this  _ big  _ rainbow. Rainbows are like this big arch lookin’ thing-” His hands shaped out an arch shape, Ranboo nodding along. “And they’re like, every colour. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. My brother always says something about indigo but he’s fucking stupid, so it doesn’t matter.” Ranboo blinked at the swear that was added amid the words, tipping his head to the side a bit. 

“What’s fucking mean?” He asked, jumping a bit as Tommy burst out laughing, repeated negatives falling out of his mouth as he shook his head, waving his hands alongside it. Ranboo giggled as well, though he didn’t know why Tommy found it so funny. The child let his laughs die off as Tommy’s did, a lapse of silence sounding between the two of them. 

“So, why’re you out here all alone, big man?” Tommy asked, voice softer than before. The joy deflated out of Ranboo at the question, a frown overtaking his face as he chewed at his thumbnail. He mumbled under his breath, not wanting to say it and speak it into existence. 

“What was that?” Tommy asked politely, leaning forward. Ranboo hesitated to speak up louder, not wanting to say it again. It felt like he was setting it in stone the moment he spoke the words out loud. Maybe it was something to do with the universe and the energy that he would put out into it, something that Mr. Bur had been rambling to him about while he tried to make a portrait of the man. He decided to repeat the words anyway, not wanting to upset Tommy after the teen had done nothing but be kind to him. 

“They kicked me out,” He mumbled, saying it a bit louder. Ranboo regretted it as he saw Tommy freeze after he uttered the words. He considered running away completely before something of a sad look fell upon his face instead of an angry one, his voice softening again as there was empathy shining in his eyes. 

“I’m so sorry to hear that, Ranboo, really,” Tommy said, not reaching out for him as he apologized. Ranboo appreciated that more than the teen seemed to realize, not wanting to touch anyone or have anyone near him at the time being. He felt too sensitive to everything, too close to shattering under anyone’s grip should they put their hands on him. Ranboo didn’t want to be reminded of Mr. Master at all. 

“Well, listen here, Ranboo, okay? Here’s what we can do. I can bring you back to my mate’s place, he lives ‘round the corner, back where I was walking from before we met. And you can stay with him for a bit while I figure something out, yeah?” Tommy offered, voice still gentle, yet prompting for an answer. Ranboo thought on it for a moment, trying to think of the downsides. There were obviously many, but almost all of them became back to the fact that he didn’t have Mr. Philza, Mr. Techno, and Mr. Bur with him and he needed to figure out how to start to learn to process that. Even though he had barely figured out that Mr. Master wouldn’t be back. 

He looked at the hand that Tommy offered him as the teen stood up straight, silhouette clear in the dark with the bits of lamp that had illuminated the streets. With a deep breath, nothing to lose, and Ranmoo tucked under his arm, he reached out and grabbed the teen’s hand. 

**Author's Note:**

> hey gang thank u for reading this lol i enjoyed writing it and i hope u wont wait for the next two bits for too long i will be catching up on art stuff i want to do for the next couple days
> 
> tell me what u thought, maybe? i enjoy reading the comments, even if i never find time to respond anymore ]: thank u again for reading!


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